The Business That Nearly Wasn't
Not long after the discovery of my gluten related issues, I came across a home test kit.
It could measure the quantity of gluten in any food or beverage down to as low as 5 ppm.
It was the only one of its kind to measure this low. I wanted to buy the kit for personal use but there was no agent in my country. Other country agents wouldn't sell it to me so I contacted the manufacturer and became an agent for my own country.
Having the kit would remove the risks associated with adding new foods to my diet. Believing there would be demand for the product in my country I decided to try and raise a small amount of seed capital. Then get some stock, set up a website and start selling.
I put a business plan together and sent it to a state sponsored seed capital group.
The following Friday afternoon I received a phone call. It was the capital group, the guy went through me for a short cut, berated my business plan, created nonexistent obstacles and dismissed me outright. And that was that, no seed capital for me.
My mind was racing. How could he speak to a person like that?
Where was he getting these nonexistent obstacles from?
So many things he said were contradictory.
It didn't feel like things were supposed to play out like this.
While my mind raced with theses thoughts my gut was calm and reassuring.
I cleared my mind and focused on my gut. Calm and reassuring.
Forgetting about everything that just happened and all the things I had been thinking of, I asked my gut what should I do?
Relax, forget about him, enjoy the weekend family gathering and come back to it on Monday or Tuesday. It’ll be different then. Trust me.
After all I'd been through over the recent years, I knew there was no point in mentally arguing or questioning my guy, so I obeyed and chilled.
On Monday morning the postman delivered a cheque for an unexpected rebate from the tax office.
Now I had my seed capital and some change. I never saw that coming, but my gut somehow did.
And that’s the thing, I had a ’told you so’ feeling in my gut.